


My Son

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 09:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if True Love's kiss came too late?</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Son

**Author's Note:**

> AU for the end of 'Apple as Red as Blood'

Regina touched him. Through the fog of her pain and grief Emma saw the elegant and well manicured hand brush against Henry’s face.

“Get out.” The energy needed just to form each word made them feel like knives on her tongue.

“He was my son…”

“No.” Emma didn’t even have it in her to be surprised when Regina flew across the room, falling and sliding along the floor. She hadn’t touched the woman. She only knew the rage that had no other place to go but out. 

“You were so desperate for him to be your son and your son only that you killed him. You couldn’t understand that he could love you and me and a hundred other people because you don’t have a heart. I was _leaving._ ” All she had wanted was to protect him, and now Henry was dead. it was her fault, but Regina held even more blame. “You killed him because you couldn’t be the center of his world.”

“I didn’t mean…”

“He’s dead. He ate your apple turnover and now he’s dead. He might have been your son when he was alive, but now he’s not and he’s mine now. Get out before I find the rest of that goddamn turnover and shove it down your throat.” She blinked furiously to keep back the tears. She would not let Regina have any of her pain, only her anger.

She thought when she was alone again it might be easier to breathe. It wasn’t. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to take a full breath again. Wasn’t sure, either, if she could ever let anyone touch her again. Henry had been the last one, just moments before he’d eaten the turnover. Before he’d told her that she didn’t believe in him, but he believe in her. She believed now, and couldn’t accept solace from the woman that didn’t know she was her mother, or the man that stood so silently in the doorway. Her parents, who didn’t know who they were but at least they had each other.

She had no one.

“Emma.” She didn’t know how long it was after David had led a weeping Mary Margaret away that anyone else dared to enter the room.

“I’m not leaving him, Archie.” She still held his hand, though it had grown cold and still. It didn’t matter; she was cold too. Empty. She’d only been living half a life before coming to Storybrooke. She’d had a small glimpse of how much more there could be, but now it was gone.

“Can I sit with you? You don’t have to talk. Neither do I. I just want to be here.” He stood with his hand curled around the back of the chair. She only looked at him for a moment, a brief nod. He looked lost. 

“Yeah.” Silence sat between them with its twin grief until it was hard to remember that there was sound or hope in the world.

The sky darkened until the room fell into shadows and only the light from the hall allowed her to view Henry’s still form. “She has to pay for this. I have to...”

“Henry wouldn’t want that.” Jiminy Cricket, Emma remembered. Henry believed that he was Pinocchio’s conscious. She understood what he was saying but she didn’t care.

“It doesn’t matter what Henry wanted anymore. He’s dead and she killed him and I can’t let her get away with that.” Her hand ached from holding on for so long but she couldn’t let go. She had let go once and he’d wound up with Regina as a mother. She’d tried to let go again and he’d died thinking she didn’t believe him. “I have to stop her before she hurts anyone else.

“For the rest of her life she has to wake up every day knowing that she’s responsible for this. We’ll find out what kind of poison she used and make sure there’s justice, but Henry wouldn’t want you to hurt anyone.” He touched her shoulder with the lightest pressure from his fingertips. It felt like it burned. “He wouldn’t want you to be alone either.”

“I am alone.” Once she’d wondered what it would be like to have a family. Now that she knew she understood that to have one and lose it hurt far worse than the questions she’s grown up with. henry was gone. He was gone and he wasn’t coming back. The tears that she hadn’t been able to shed fell down her cheeks as her hand fell away. She was only holding onto dreams, and they were gone now.

“You’re not. I promise, Emma, you’re not alone.” He held her as sobs wracked her body, rocking almost as if she was a child. She wasn’t even sure how she’d gotten from the chair to her lap. She didn’t protest and couldn’t find it in her to care. She sobbed for the years she’d missed and the ones she would never have. She thought of every smile, every cocoa mustache, every secret plan and whispered conversation. Every moment she’d had made the silence so much worse.

“I can’t do this.” She needed to run, but she had no energy. She needed her parents but they were trapped by an Evil Queen’s curse. She needed her son but he was dead.

“Let me help.” As he held her tight his lips brushed against her forehead. The room was flooded in light, energy buzzing around them. Archie looked down at her in wonder, eyes wide, and within minutes Mary Margaret and David were in the doorway, staring at her with paternal love and shattered grief.

The curse had been broken. True Love’s kiss had saved them all.

Except one.


End file.
